Housewraps are known for attachment to the outer surfaces of structures (e.g., over the sheathing on a house prior to attachment of its siding) over joints between structural members assembled to form the structures, which housewraps restrict the passage of liquid water and air (e.g., rain and wind) through the housewraps into the structures, while affording passage of water vapor through the housewraps. Such restriction of liquid water keeps water (e.g., rain) from entering the structures and damaging their insulation and structural members, while such restriction of the air prevents air currents from entering the interior of the structures and minimizes air movement within the walls of the structures so that the maximum effective heat retention or "R" values of the walls can be obtained. Such passage of water vapor through the housewraps allows water vapor which enters the walls from the interior of the structures to exit so that such water vapor can be restricted from condensing within the walls and potentially damaging their insulation and structural members. Heretofore, however, such housewraps have been in the form of sheet materials attached over the entire outer surfaces of the exterior sheathing on structures such as houses prior to attaching siding to the structures. Typical sheet materials for housewraps of this type include (1) the sheet material made of spunbonded high density polyethylene fibers sold under the trade designation "DuPont Tyvek (TM) Housewrap" by DuPont Company, Wilmington, Del.; (2) the sheet material made of spunbonded polypropylene fibers sold under the trade designation "Typar (TM) Housewrap, Reemeay Inc., Old Hickory, Tenn.; (3) the high density, cross laminated microperforated polyethylene sheet material sold under the trade designation "Rufco-wrap" by Raven Industries, Inc, Sioux Falls, S.D., and (4) the cross-woven microperforated polyolefin sheet materials sold by Amoco Foam Products Company, Atlanta, Ga., and Fabrene Inc., Mississauga, Ontario, under the trade designations "Amowrap (TM) Housewrap" and "Air-Gard Housewrap, respectively. While such housewrap sheet materials are effective if properly attached to structures, such attachment is not convenient and ordinarily cannot be applied at the same time as the sheathing or siding. Such housewrap sheet materials are often installed as a separate step after the sheathing has been fully installed on a structure and before the siding is attached. Many times at least two workers are required to attach housewrap sheet material to a structure because of the large size of the housewrap sheet material. Two story structures require scaffolding to properly attach the sheet material and sometimes this is not done. Instead the sheet material is installed on the inside or outside of the second story wall section before it is stood up and hence the sheet material installed in this manner will not cover joints or gaps in the construction. Such attachment is time consuming because the housewrap sheet material is often attached to the structure by staples or other fasteners and the seams between adjacent pieces of housewrap sheet material on a structure are preferably sealed with pressure sensitive adhesive coated tape in order to effectively reduce air and water leakage at gaps and joints in the sheathing and housewrap sheet material (e.g. such as that tape sold under the trade name "8086 Builders Sealing Tape" by Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company, St. Paul, Minn. 55144-1000). Also, attachment of housewrap sheet material can be made difficult, complicated and possibly even dangerous by wind blowing the sheet material around. Improper attachment greatly affects performance, and extended exposure to sunlight (ultraviolet rays) can reduce performance of such housewrap sheet materials.
While it has also been known to have breathable surgical adhesive tapes which are vapor permeable (e.g. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,121,021 and 4,112,177), such tapes have not had appropriate backing material suitable for sealing gaps in building construction and furthermore, such tapes have been coated edge-to-edge with adhesive, thus requiring a special adhesive that ultimately becomes porous to maintain vapor permeability. By being completely coated with adhesive, such tapes may attract contaminants such as dust and dirt or other particles of loose material present in a building construction environment and thus such fully coated tapes may become obstructed or clogged with foreign material, thus reducing or eliminating vapor permeability in the gap between building elements where such vapor permeability is desired.